Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo retract Atlético debt report

The law firm issued a public apology to the club and its directors for its faulty findings

The Law Firm of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo has officially withdrawn its 4,000 page report in which it had claimed Atlético’s debt was at €782m. The report had been prepared for Asociacion Señales de Humo, clients of the firm.

According to MARCA, Atleti general director Miguel Ángel Gil Marín met with commercial law professor and writer of the report, Ángel Fernández Albor, last Friday.

At the meeting, Gil Marín reportedly explained the inaccuracies Fernández Albor’s determinations were based on. The professor eventually confessed that unconfirmed financial data provided by Señales de Humo was used.

Shortly after the report was published, Atlético threatened to file suit against both Señales de Humo and the attorneys of Cremades. The club assured the report contained “inexact, slanderous, and biased attacks.”

Gil Marín and Fernández Albor’s discussion led to a settlement contract signed by both parties. The club agreed to call off plans of filing a lawsuit against the firm, whilst Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo would be required to retract the report prepared for Señales de Humo.

Additionally, Cremades agreed to donate 3000 euros to the Fundación Rojiblanca as compensation for damages the report caused the club.

The firm issued the following statement on its website on Monday:

“Regarding the report that Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, as a law firm, issued on 25 January 2011 upon request by Asociación Señales de Humo relating to CLUB ATLÉTICO DE MADRID, S.A.D., the following is communicated:

1. The firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo has been able to verify, through the distribution of the report, that the data and information contained within supplied by Asociación Señales de Humo in order to support the findings of the report, were inexact, incomplete and even incorrect, therefore, the determinations drawn from that information are without legal validity and lack technical accuracy.

2. The firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo expressly retracts all opinions expressed in the report, which are no longer valid, requesting Asociación Señales de Humo to refrain from making any use, public or private, of the report.

3. The firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo deeply regrets the damage that may have been caused by the issuance of the report to CLUB ATLÉTICO DE MADRID, as well as to Mr. Enrique Cerezo Torres and Mr. Miguel Angel Gil Marín, in their capacity as President and General Director of the club.”

Señales de Humo have not officially responded to this news, though the association’s Twitter account contained a tweet suggesting that Gil Marín and Co. managed to buy the lawyers’ silence.

“Cremades informed us this morning,” it read. “It seems as if they received an offer they could not refuse…”

starvs

Sounds like something shady likely went down here.

I wonder what the real debt number actually is, probably somewhere in the middle. I’ll baselessly guess €510m.